Beehive house
Harran-beehouses
Another view of beehive houses in Harran
A beehive house is a building made from a circle of stones topped with a domed roof. The name comes from the similarity in shape to a straw beehive. A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb (plural tholoi) (“domed tombs”), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name.
Tholoi were used for burial in several cultures in the Mediterranean and West Asia, but in some cases they were used for different purposes such as homes (Cyprus), ritual (Syria), and even fortification (Spain, Sardinia). Max Mallowan used the same name for the circular houses belonging to the Neolithic culture of Tell Halaf (Iraq, Syria and Turkey).
Beehive houses are some of the oldest known structures in Ireland and Scotland. Dating from as far back as around 2000 BC and some were still being built as late as the 19th century in Puglia (Italy). The ancient Bantu used this type of house, which was made with mud, poles, and cow dung.
Circular structures were commonly built in the Near East, including the examples known as tholoi found in the Neolithic Halaf culture of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. They were probably used as both houses and as storage structures, but ritual use may also have occurred. Other, later examples are found in Cyprus (Khirokitia), where they were used as homes. There is no clear connection between these domestic, circular buildings and later tholos tombs.
Clochán, Irish stone huts, often beehive shaped
Dovecote also called doocot (Scots), buildings to house doves, some are beehive shaped, stone structures.
Musgum mud huts, huts of the Musgum people in Cameroon
Nuraghe, large, round, neolithic, stone structures in Sardinia
Trullo, a southern Italian type of beehive house
Comments